Let's change our work attitude-Veep urges Ghanaian workers

The vice President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama over the weekend urged Ghanaian workers to refrain from their lackadaisical attitude towards work in order to uplift the country’s economy to greater heights. According to him, people’s bad attitude towards work in both government and private institutions was thwarting government’s efforts to ensure economic growth.
“For us to perform economically well as a nation, we must change our attitude towards work, a few maligners, pilfering and the mismanagement and misapplication of scarce resources will undermine productivity at the work place”, noted the vice President in a speech delivered on his behalf by Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, at the 19th National Marketing Performance Awards in Accra. It was under the theme- “Improving the work ethos of the Ghanaian, the role of strategic marketing”.
Alhaji Aliu Mahama therefore tasked the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG) to conduct an assessment of capabilities of the Ghanaian worker in order to determine the type of training, technical assistance and material support that will be required to transform the Ghanaian worker to make him/her competitive, both locally and internationally.
He said greater change requires the CIMG and other professional institutions and private organizations to put in place measures that will equip the Ghanaian workforce to cope with the task of national development.
“Just as we are determined to grow the economy to get to a middle income status, simultaneously, there is the need to grow the manpower base of the economy so as to be able to rise to the challenges of the new Ghana that we are all building. Without a trained, disciplined and dedicated workforce, Ghana cannot move forward”, he said.
He averred that his government shall continue to put in place policies and programmes that will develop the human resource base of the country in order to make it competitive to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
He then appealed to Ghanaian workers to begin evaluating their roles as agents of change for accelerated growth. The National President of CIMG, Mrs. Josephine Okutu, also tasked Ghanaian workers to refrain from the mindset of “don’t fix it if it is not broken” but rather inculcate in themselves the spirit of perseverance and drive, for continuous improvements and good maintenance culture.
“To achieve a middle income status by 2015 as envisaged, we need a dedicated workforce with the spirit of enquiry and challenge to develop innovative products and the spirit of perseverance and good maintenance culture. We also need a motivated workforce that celebrates success with teams and does not promote pull him down tendencies in its ranks”, she noted.
The Omanhene of Kukuom Traditional Area, Osahene Atta Takyi, who was the Chairman of the occasion, also added his voice to the call of attitudinal change among Ghanaian workers and tasked them to give their best, wherever they find themselves working to improve the fortunes of the country’s economy.